Remote work has always been popular for its flexibility, and lucrative remote jobs are becoming more common. You may even find yourself qualified for a high-paying remote job without a degree. While online jobs without degree requirements are relatively rare, they are available to the right candidates. With enough experience, you can get a remote job with no degree.
In addition to experience-based remote jobs that don’t require a degree, this article gives examples of companies that have high-paying job opportunities for entry-level candidates without college degrees. You can use the information provided to weigh the pros and cons of working remotely to see if it is for you.
High-Paying Remote Jobs Without a College Degree
| Job | Average Salary | Outlook |
|---|---|---|
| Social Media Manager | $133,380 | 10% |
| Project Manager | $94,500 | 7% |
| Web Developer | $77,030 | 30% |
| Copywriter | $69,510 | 4% |
| Freelance Writer | $69,510 | 4% |
| Digital Marketer | $63,920 | 19% |
| Executive Assistant | $62,060 | -20% |
| Tech Support Specialist | $57,910 | 6% |
| Freelance Graphic Designer | $50,710 | 3% |
| Insurance Agent | $49,840 | 6% |
| Medical Coding Specialist | $46,660 | 7% |
| Virtual Bookkeeper | $45,560 | -5% |
| Virtual Assistant | $39,680 | -8% |
Best Remote Jobs That Don’t Require a Degree: A Closer Look
In the case of many remote jobs, no degree means not getting hired. But you don’t always need a traditional degree to work from home. Depending on the job title, you will either be hired based on your experience or you will receive on-the-job training after you’re brought on. At any rate, the 13 jobs on this list are some of the best online jobs without a degree requirement.
Social Media Manager
Social media managers represent companies online by overseeing their web-based media presence and using social media to engage with clients. They track social media trends and plan strategies to improve a brand’s image or value. Social media managers react to comments in a steady brand voice, make unique posts, and connect with other organizations’ accounts.
Project Manager
Project managers are highly valued in most client-based industries. Managing budgets while taking specific projects from conception to completion, remote project managers must guide their virtual teams through shifting expectations and a series of deadlines. If you have a project management certification, you can get this high-paying remote job without a degree.
Web Developer
Web developers write code to create useful, enticing, and highly functional websites. These professionals work with both appearance and functionality. While you need no degree for remote jobs in this field, you will need coding and web administration skills. You can sharpen these skills by taking an online course or enrolling in an online coding bootcamp.
Copywriter
Copywriters create enticing, engaging, and instructive content. Copywriters compose articles, text for websites, item descriptions, and social media posts. They are adept at switching their tone to match the mission of their employer. Copywriters don’t need a degree to be offered a lucrative work-from-home position.
Freelance Writer
A freelance writer writes different types of content. Organizations searching for writers range from media organizations to SEO operations, among others. Numerous companies are searching for beginner-level writers to create SEO-friendly content. You might be paid per word or a set amount for a set number of words.
Digital Marketer
The precise job description of a remote digital marketer depends on the marketing strategy, but in general, a digital marketer uses various online channels to generate leads for a company. These include email, social media, and traffic from search engines. No degree for remote marketing jobs is needed if you’ve graduated from one of the best digital marketing bootcamps.
Executive Assistant
Executive assistants offer mindful help to an organization’s leaders. They work intimately with a single executive to arrange their schedule, screen calls, create presentations, acquire supplies, and handle managerial duties. Executive assistants often accompany executives to gatherings to take minutes and assist them with staying organized.
Tech Support Specialist
Tech support specialists work at the intersection of information technology and customer service, where they help people solve their computer problems in person, over the phone, or with an online chat tool. You can be remote as long as there isn’t any hardware to install or onsite maintenance to perform, and any tech wiz can succeed in this online job with no degree.
Freelance Graphic Designer
Freelance graphic designers use design software to make logos, artistic prints, web images, page formats, and computerized drawings for their customers. They meet with customers to create designs based on their clients’ preferences and tastes. Remote graphic designers use online chats or their telephone to book customers and communicate feedback.
Insurance Agent
Insurance agents connect with clients over telephone or email to sell home, auto, life, or general protection plans. They assemble data on who needs protection and meet with them to discuss terms. Insurance agents work out payment rates, deductibles, installments, and extra services based on their customer’s circumstances and needs.
Medical Coding Specialist
Medical coding specialists analyze patient charts after an appointment and assign codes to each part of a patient’s visit. The codes indicate different needs for the patient, making it simple for insurance agencies to decide on coverage options and approve insurance claims. Coding specialists put these codes into a database and often work with medical staff.
Virtual Bookkeeper
Virtual bookkeepers use web-based accounting software to assist with customer records. They sort a customer’s purchases into categories and ensure that their balances match with receipts, purchases, and invoices. They gain remote access to organizational archives, sort them out in a secure way, make transaction reports, and reconcile discrepancies.
While you can become a virtual bookkeeper without a degree, online jobs in accounting sometimes require candidates to hold an accounting certificate of some kind. Someone with billing and administrative experience could easily become a virtual bookkeeper.
Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants serve customers by booking transportation, making arrangements, posting online media content, and keeping track of expenses. Priorities are set by the customer and these professionals can perform a wide range of duties.
What Skills Do You Need to Land a Remote Job?
The skills you need to land a remote job include self-motivation, independence, and emotional intelligence. These qualities are absolutely crucial in a remote setting, which calls for the ability to be productive, collaborative, and communicative without physical contact with others. Let’s take a closer look at each piece of the necessary skillset for working a remote job.
Independence
The ability to work independently is important since you will not be able to lean on your coworkers or superiors for quick answers. In some cases, there may be a time difference between you and the employer, which means you’ll often have to wait for answers. Most remote employers expect remote workers to work with little guidance.
Self-Motivation
Staying motivated is vital to your success. Being able to maintain self-motivation to achieve your career goals and hit all your deadlines will prove to be non-negotiable. If you have children to care for, then you may want to hire help to care for them for a few hours a day so you can stay focused. You may even want to have a separate workspace, like a home office, to stay focused.
Communication Skills
Miscommunication can easily translate to wasted time, which ultimately costs the company money and could lead to your dismissal. Although people would assume that remote work would require less communication, quite the opposite is true. This is especially apparent for remote customer service representatives, sales representatives, and project managers.
Collaboration Skills
Although you will be at home working alone, collaboration is still an important part of the skillset for working a remote job. Being accountable and able to keep team members adequately informed are highly valued skills in this environment. You might also need to collaborate with other departments, colleagues, or external business partners.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is your ability to understand and manage your own emotions. Part of being emotionally intelligent is knowing where your boundaries are, what triggers your stress response, and how you should react to stay emotionally and mentally healthy. Communicating effectively and empathizing with others are also key parts of emotional intelligence.
What Education Do You Need to Get a Remote Job?
In the world of remote jobs, education is less important than experience. When education is a formal requirement, a short bootcamp or online course can make up for the lack of a degree. Most importantly, comb over your past experiences and leverage them to enhance your appeal. Think about how the skills you’ve acquired in the past can help you stand out for remote jobs.
Why College Is Not for Everyone
College isn’t for everyone and that’s okay. Maybe you didn’t have the time or money to study, or your circumstances made it difficult to dedicate four years to a college degree program. Education for remote jobs can take many forms, so don’t let not having a college degree stand between you and getting the skills and knowledge you need for success.
Can a Coding Bootcamp Help Me Get a Remote Job?
A coding bootcamp can definitely help you qualify for remote jobs in the tech industry. Employers value bootcamp graduates because they have often acquired hands-on skills in their bootcamp programs. In fact, bootcamps have quickly become one of the primary ways you can qualify for high-paying remote jobs with no degree.
How to Get a Remote Job With a GED
Assess Your Skills
The first step to finding a remote job with a GED is to determine what skills and knowledge you already have. Make a list of all the skills and knowledge you have acquired from your education, work history, and other experiences. This will also help you determine the field you should look into.
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Research Jobs
Once you have listed your skills, knowledge, and experience, you can now start to look at what kinds of jobs you qualify for. If you select a job outside of your qualifications, you may find that it is not as enjoyable for you as you thought or you may become overwhelmed with the demands.
Most job postings list the required skills needed to secure the position. There are also a few online job boards that allow you to input your skills, experience, education, and work history to match you with positions you qualify for, including no-degree remote jobs.
Prepare Your Resume
Creating a professional resume with all the relevant information and ensuring it’s compelling can be difficult. With that said, there are plenty of free resources available online. There is also a plethora of free resume templates that will take the information you enter and organize it into a beautiful and professional resume.
Also, do not forget to write a cover letter. Cover letters are still widely expected as part of applications for employment. It is the first real impression you can make on an employer, particularly when applying for remote positions, so make sure it is compelling and concise.
Apply for the Position
Now that you know what jobs you are qualified for and have adequately prepared your resume and cover letter, it is time to apply for those positions. Do not be discouraged when applying for jobs if they ask for a degree. There are many employers that accept skills and knowledge in lieu of a degree.
Prepare for the Interview
Being prepared for the interview will put you in a competitive position to secure employment. Do research on the company interviewing you. Know things like their mission, values, share price, reported successes in the press, and any other notable information you may feel is important to know.
Put your best foot forward, making sure you are well-rested, prepared, and well-groomed on the day of the interview. Make sure you have a quiet place for the interview so there are no interruptions or distractions, as you will need to give your undivided attention to the interviewer.
Companies That Offer Entry-Level Remote Jobs
Discussing the best remote jobs with no experience or degree requirements can be a little abstract without specific examples. Just know that, if you don’t have a college degree, the best companies with remote job opportunities extend the privilege to work from home to entry-level employees. With that in mind, here are a few remote job companies that you should check out:
- Aha Media Group: Aha Media Group is a media content and marketing firm. It specializes in content strategy and communication solutions, including web writing and content writing. Many of their writers and editors work remotely.
- Canva: Canva is an online design and publishing tool. They intend to provide the opportunity for everyone in the world to create visual documents and publish or print them. While it’s hard to get a graphic design job at Canva with no experience, the best remote jobs at the company are sometimes made available to early career candidates.
- Excellence Services: This is a privately owned business that provides luxury services exclusively to the wealthy. If you want to be a virtual assistant, this is a good company to work for.
- Ultius, Inc: This is a platform that claims to quickly and reliably connect people and companies with the best writers on the market. Ultius can help freelance writers build up their work-from-home businesses.
- Clutch: This is a hybrid consultancy firm focusing on B2B companies. Its services include both marketing and sales consulting, and it hires remote sales agents all the time.
Where to Find Remote Jobs That Don’t Require a Degree
According to Pew Research, the COVID-19 pandemic has made telework more prevalent, with 53 percent of workers with some college or less now working from home at least some of the time. For those currently unemployed, the trick is tracking down these remote job opportunities. If you’re on the hunt, the best places to search for remote work are detailed below.
Online Job Boards
Most companies nowadays lean heavily on the Internet for recruitment, with sites like LinkedIn and Indeed among the most popular destinations. But some online job boards specialize in remote job opportunities in high-paying industries. On Virtual Vocations, for example, there are listings for over 4,000 remote coding jobs, some of which do not require a four-year degree.
Freelancing Sites
If you’re looking for high-paying remote jobs without degree or experience requirements, your best bet may be to become a self-employed freelancer. Prospective clients won’t care about your education as long as you can prove to them you’re good at what you do, and websites like Upwork and Fiverr allow you to build up your freelancing business from nothing.
Company Career Pages
You also can’t go wrong by going directly to the source. Most companies post all of their openings on proprietary career pages with robust search functions. Two big examples are Google Careers and Amazon.jobs. If you’re interested in work-from-home jobs at Google or Amazon, the “remote” and “no degree” filters on their career pages are the way to go.
Consider an Online Degree Later in Your Career
Although the idea of pursuing a bachelor’s degree may seem overwhelming, online degree programs have made it easier than ever. The best degrees for remote work, in fields as diverse as marketing and computer science, open up more opportunities for you as an independent contractor or freelancer, increasing your earning potential while allowing you to work from home.
While you might not be in a position to do so now, you might want to consider the benefits of earning your online degree later in your career. And just remember that, degree or no degree, remote jobs may be an option for you. Before deciding whether to pursue more education, take our free career quiz to help you decide which path is right for you.
Remote Jobs Without a Degree FAQ
A remote job is a job you can perform outside of the office, at home, or from anywhere in the world. Some entry-level tech jobs require employees to work certain hours, while others afford employees the privilege of choosing their own hours. You can choose from a wide range of remote jobs depending on your qualifications, skills, and previous experience.
What is the easiest job to do remotely?
The easiest remote jobs are virtual assistants, data entry specialists, and transcriptionists, all of which require nothing more than basic literacy, numeracy, and computer skills. If you know how to use Microsoft Office products like Excel, Word, and Outlook, or you can navigate Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar, you can do any of these jobs.
How much can I make without a degree?
You can make over $100,000 per year without a degree if you pursue certain career paths. For example, the average air traffic controller makes $129,750 per year with only a community college education, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On average, however, someone with only a high school diploma makes $809 per week, or about $42,000 per year.
What are fun jobs that pay well without a degree?
Fun jobs that pay well without a degree are those that allow you to do interesting and exciting things while working. It largely depends on what you enjoy doing, of course, but some common fun jobs that don’t require a degree are flight attendant, bartender, and influencer. If you don’t have a degree, the best entry-level jobs are also often a fun way to advance your career.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
